William Wilson sits at his family's farm house in Osgoode, Ont., on Thursday, June 10, 2010. His father, John Wilson, contracted HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C in the 1980s after receiving tainted blood from the Red Cross to treat his hemophilia.
William Wilson was there when his father took his final, shallow breath last August, but had watched him slowly die for the last 20 years. His father, John Wilson, contracted HIV and hepatitis C in the 1980s after receiving tainted blood from the Red Cross to treat his hemophilia, a rare blood disorder.
"I grew up my whole life knowing he was on borrowed time," Mr. Wilson, 28, said from his father's farmhouse in Osgoode, Ont.
Thousands of Canadians like John Wilson were infected with HIV and hepatitis C in the early 1980s when the Red Cross failed to properly screen donors. Since 1985, Canada restricted its blood donation policy to protect recipients from another catastrophic mistake. This includes barring men who have sex with other men - which increases their risk for HIV/AIDS - from donating blood.
But a court ruling expected this summer could change that.
Canadian Blood Services (CBS) is suing Kyle Freeman, a sexually active gay man, for lying about his sexual history in order to donate blood. Mr. Freeman is counter-suing, saying the policy is discriminatory. If the judge rules that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to CBS, and the policy restricts the rights of gay men, the service will have to change it.
All public policies fall under the jurisdiction of the Charter, but CBS argues that as a non-government agency, the Charter does not apply. Mr. Freeman and his lawyers maintain it does. While the Charter ensures the right to equality, it also allows the federal government to limit rights where it is demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. In the case of Freeman versus CBS, these two provisions clash.
At the heart of the matter is one question: To what extent does Canada's blood-donation policy protect its recipients at the price of discriminating against gay men?
Since 1985, any man wishing to donate blood must answer the question: "If you are a man, have you had sex with a man since 1977, even once?"
Fiona Campbell, the lawyer for Egale Canada - an advocacy group that pursues equality for Canadian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people - says the question is too restrictive, effectively barring for life all sexually active gay men from donating blood. This, she says, is discriminatory and violates the equality guarantees under the Charter.
Mr. Freeman says discrimination would be warranted if it would prevent another health disaster like the tainted blood scandal, but now that testing has improved, the policy is no longer sensible and perpetuates gay stereotypes. He says the ban makes him feel like a second-class citizen.
"It's 2010," he said. "It's saddening to see our government so hell-bent on discriminating against people."
Mr. Freeman, 37, says he doesn't want to endanger anyone - quite the opposite. The Thornhill, Ont., resident says his family has always given blood and he lied on the questionnaire to help those in need.
"It's the ultimate gift," Mr. Freeman said from Israel, where he is vacationing with Vince, his partner of eight years. He says CBS is missing out on a population of potential donors. "Not everyone who's gay has AIDS," he said emphatically.
Mr. Wilson doesn't see it that way. "Freeman should be in jail, not trying to argue that it's his constitutional right to endanger blood donor recipients," he said.
Canada, the United States, France and Germany maintain lifetime donation bans for men who have had sex with other men. Australia, Japan and Sweden have one-year deferrals for men who have had multiple male sexual partners; in other words, if a gay man in one of these countries has only had one sexual partner in the past year, he can donate blood. Spain and Italy screen blood donors based on the safety of their sexual activity, as opposed to the gender of their sexual partners.
At a meeting last week, an advisory committee on blood safety for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended maintaining the current U.S. policy.
On Monday, the Canadian Federation of Students confirmed it was behind an "end the ban" campaign that was responsible for a protest in Halifax. The federation issued a statement that Canada's policy is discriminatory and based on outdated science.
Canada Blood Services argues the lifetime ban is in place to protect the health of Canadians who receive blood. Its policy states that in Canada, approximately 75 per cent of reported AIDS cases have been traced to transmission from one male to another male.
Ron Vezina, the national spokesperson for CBS, says the policy does not discriminate against anyone, including homosexuals. That's why the screening question specifically asks men whether they have had sex with other men since 1977, not about their sexuality.
"It's not about being gay or straight," Mr. Vezina said. "It's the act."
He says the policy has been reviewed and revised a number of times since it was implemented, most recently in 2006. "The problem is there's no answer," Mr. Vezina said. "We as an organization would be willing to make a change as long as science backs it up and there is no risk to our patients."
The risk to patients is exactly what worries Mr. Wilson. The hardest part of growing up with a terminally ill father, he says, was watching him slowly deteriorate to the point where he could no longer do what he loved most - farming. Chronic bleeding ruined the cartilage in his knees and elbows, making it impossible to lift heavy bags of seeds or operate machinery. The mental toll was just as crippling.
"My dad spent most of his life thinking he had just six months to live," Mr. Wilson said. "You can't imagine how hard that was for him."